This invention relates to vehicle doors and, more particularly, to motor vehicle doors designed to prevent jamming in the event of a collision.
Conventional door arrangements are shown in German Pat. No. 903,064, 63c, 44 and British Pat. No. 640,870. These patents disclose that the end of a conventional door, that holds the door lock, has a diagonal face that mates with a diagonal face of a door pillar. As a result, the width of the door increases with increasing distance from the vehicle's longitudinal axis, i.e. in the direction in which the door opens. However, the gap between these diagonal faces when the door is closed is larger than the space between the outer door panel and the pillar. Consequently, when the vehicle is impacted along its longitudinal axis, e.g. during a collision, the outer door panel will become crushed before the diagonal faces meet and it will likely jam the door lock. This could cause the passengers to be trapped in the vehicle.